Apartment living is about to jump in Scottsdale as a growing number of complexes near completion, while others begin construction.

The first units of various new complexes are available for leasing in the southern, central and northern parts of the city.

One high-profile apartment project, Gray Development Group’s Blue Sky, however, has yet to come out of the ground since it was approved by the City Council in April 2011. The site is on the eastern side of Scottsdale Road, just north of Camelback Road and across from Scottsdale Fashion Square.

Blue Sky would have more than 700 units in three, 13-story buildings with underground parking. It would include a penthouse restaurant and retail and restaurant space along Scottsdale Road.

Gray was facing a two-year time limit for construction to start, as stipulated by the City Council. That was removed when former acting City Manager Dan Worth in April sent an e-mail to the council saying city staff conducted an inspection and found that site work appeared to meet the stipulation.

Brian Kearney, Gray’s chief operating officer, could not give any details regarding the status of the project when contacted by the Arizona Business Gazette.

“The only comment we have at the moment is that everything is on track,” he said. “At the appropriate time, I’ll be glad to talk ... in more detail.”

Earlier this year, Kearney said Gray lost its equity partner on the project, Berkshire Multifamily Equity Fund, so Gray was self-funding construction until it secured a partner.

The last communication city planning staff had with Gray regarding Blue Sky was in April, said Steve Venker, planning and design services manager. The firm submitted plans for infrastructure improvements and underground parking, as well as storm-water-drainage reports, he said.

“They’re in the second-review cycle,” he said. “Looks like someone from their development team has received those plans from us. They’re working on their response to the second-review comments.”

There has been no indication that Gray isn’t pursuing the project, Venker said.

Other apartment developers, such as Alliance Residential Co., are forging ahead with projects. The first phase of its Broadstone Lincoln complex, at the northwestern corner of Scottsdale Road and Lincoln Drive, opened last month and is moving in tenants.

When completed, the complex will have 264 apartments, with resort-style amenities, such as a two-story fitness center, pool area with cabanas and fireplace, a water feature and spa.

Alliance also is progressing on Broadstone Waterfront, a 259-unit apartment complex with restaurant and retail space along Marshall Way. The first units will be available in April.

“Today’s apartments are yesterday’s condos,” said Ian Swiergol, Alliance Residential’s managing director. “The finishes (flooring, countertops and cabinetry) that you might have expected in a condo previously are very much what we’re seeing the trend in apartments today. It is the same demographic of folks who might have opted to buy a unit before, but now they’re looking to rent to maintain mobility, but they have the same expectations in terms of finishes.”

More people are choosing to rent, not buy, and they want to live in certain areas, “so we’re trying to respond to what we saw as a growing trend,” he said.

“We want to get in front of that wave in the sense that everybody would love to live in Old Town Scottsdale and Camelback, but they hadn’t had the opportunity to do so. So we pursued those early on to make sure we can deliver them into this early phase as well,” Swiergol said.

In south Scottsdale, the first tenants are moving into the first phase of SkySong Apartments. The 325-unit complex is part of SkySong, the Arizona State University Scottsdale Innovation Center, at Scottsdale and McDowell roads.

“Leasing activity has been brisk so far, and there’s a great deal of interest in the project because of the exciting and attractive location at SkySong,” said Tom Evans, SkySong spokesman.

In early December, Rural/Metro Corp. will be relocating its billing and operations center from the northeastern corner of Granite Reef and Indian School roads to make way for Wood Partners’ Alta Scottsdale apartment complex.

The developer of multifamily residences is in escrow with Rural/Metro to purchase the 5.65-acre parcel. The property originally was occupied by a grocery store and later was renovated to house Rural/Metro’s operations in 1996.

“There’s about six weeks of demolition that we have here,” he said. “Obviously, there’s a decent amount of infrastructure here that we need to take down prior to putting up what we’re going to be putting up, which is a 218-unit luxury apartment building with associated amenities.”

Overall, construction should take about 20 months, with the first units available for leasing in a year, Taylor said.

“South Scottsdale is a really strong apartment market, and there’s been virtually no apartment development up until very recently,” he said. “The Gen-Y cohort, which is people 20-34 years of age, are very predisposed to rent given what’s happened in the single-family-homes market and what we’ve seen over the last five years. There’s a very large number of the renter demographic and they like this area considerably.”

In addition, Mark Taylor has started construction on the first phase of its 572-unit gated apartment community on McDowell Road just east of SkySong. The first phase includes 440 units as well as the leasing office, pool area, main amenity spaces, courtyard areas and the perimeter boundary, said Chris Brozina, Mark Taylor’s vice president.

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